When I was in college, I had many international friends. I could
tell you which country someone was from simply by the way they
(mis)pronounced my name.

To me, these "misprounciations" of my name are endearing. I wouldn't want them to change.

Many people do leave off the first "a," so I am known to many as "Manda."

I like being called "Manda."

In ninth grade, I told my English teacher to call me Manda--I even used it on all my homework and tests in his course. Why? I don't know. Maybe that was my rebellious teenage act. And, why only his? In all other classes, I still went by Amanda.

My own "unique" Amanda nicknames from the past include "Danda" and "Minda.

Both come from my younger brother as he was learning to speak.

My sister still sometimes calls me Minda.

I called myself "Nana" when I was learning to speak.

My sister calls me "Nana Cole" on rare occasions.

I have been called "Manda Panda" before.

No one calls me Mandy. No one ever has.

Growing up (Sam didn't come till I was 15), I was the only one in my
family with a middle name that didn't start with the letter "E." So,
my "keep out" signs usually read something like "only those whose
middle names do not start with E may enter this room." Ok, yeah,
you're right "keep out" would've been easier (but not near as much
fun). ;)

I am secretly glad they didn't give Sam a middle name with an "E." If I'd been the only child without the initials SEP and the only member of the family without a middle name starting with "E" the envy would just be too much for me to handle. :) There would be no hope at consoling me.

Parmley is not a common family name. In fact, my PawPaw (dad's dad) always told me that if I met another "Parmley" they were somehow related to me.

When searching for genelogy a few years ago, I found out that is has also been spelled "Parmlee," "Parmalee" and "Parmelee" in the past.

In 1920 several Parmley families lived in Texas. In 1840, most of the Parmley families were in Kentucky. Nifty.

Taiwanese people think my English name is LONG! My full name in English is 7 syllables--that is more than twice the average Chinese name. Names here in Taiwan are typically three characters long--one (first one) is the family name (or surname) and the next two are the given name. Each character is one syllable, so most names here in Taiwan are only three syllables. I guess each year I have at least one student with only 2 characters (syllables) in their name--everyone else 3.

And I have seen some married women add their husband's surname to their name giving them a four character (syllable) name. Most Taiwanese women don't change their family name when they get married. This is not a feminism thing--just a cultural thing.

Here in Taiwan, if someone is using Chinese to say "Amanda," I get called "阿曼達" (ah-man (like the Jamacian pronouncation of "man") -da ("da" not "duh" like in English)

This means graceful (or slow--choice is yours) and clear.

If I want new people to know my English name, I start with "Amanda" but then say "阿曼達" if they have trouble with the English only pronunciation version.

Some have even shortened this to just "阿曼" (ah-man).

Which I find interesting because in English the first "a" gets dropped, but in Chinese the final "da" gets dropped since the "ah" is used to make nicknames (kinda like we add an "ie" or "y" to the end of names).

Lee is a common Chinese surname--my Chinese teacher choose it because of the "lee" sound at the end of Parmley.

The "Le-En" part of the name is the given name and means "joyous grace."

I like my Chinese name.

Here in Taiwan, when people ask for my
name, I will ask if they want my English name or my Chinese name. I am
fine going by either.

In the community most people do not call me by any of these names. Most everyone I talk to in my building and neighborhood calls me "老師" (lao shi, teacher). Even though I don't teach them or anyone they know--this is my relationship to the community.

At first it took me a long time to get used to being called 老師 by the person I was buying breakfast from, but now I am accustumed to it and even enjoy it a little.

If my students want to call me "Amanda 老師" it is ok with me, but I don't let them call me "Amanda Teacher." And if they call me just "老師," I tell them, they can call me "Amanda" if they want (but don't force them to call me by my given name).

It is odd for me when grown men and women show me such great repespect by calling me" 老師" in the classroom. I don't know why out the community I am ok being called "老師," but actually in my classroom, I would prefer to be called "Amanda" or "Amanda 老師." Uh-oh, something new for me to analyze.

Wow that's interesting! I don't think I could come up with so many facts about my name, but i do have two chinese names like you! Charlotte translated into chinese is ㄒㄧㄚˋ ㄌㄩˋ ㄉㄧˋ so like you i always say Charlotte first then follow it with that if they can't get the pronunciation. Using that I often get Charlott-ee, and i have to tell them the "e" is silent. My chinese name 歐采琳 was given to me my a friend here Ou because my family name is Oke. By the way, there are NO other Charlotte Oke's in the U.S. don't I feel special ;) My students call me Miss Oke. Take Care! I did post the other meme by the way (4 words)... i seem to have lots of time on my hands these days！haha